Final Farewell
by sideoflight
Summary: HBP spoilers! Dumbledore says goodbye to Harry who is mourning his death. From DD's POV. Complete.


J.K.Rowling wrote Harry Potter, I think that's enough said.:)

The Story: This wasinspired byre-readingthe talk between Harry and Dumbledore after the battle in the Ministry and remembering the sadending of Half-Blood Prince. I felt like writing something like this ever since reading HBP for the first time.  
Ironically, my favourite character died by the hands of my other favourite character.../  
Anyway, I don't know if I went too much out of character (tell me if I did) but I hope it's still plausible as Dumbledore's POV.

At the funeral, Dumbledore who is still lingering at Hogwarts for some time decides to trully say goodbye to Harry, which he never managed because of the circumstances under which he was killed. Even though Harry couldn't hear him, he still couldn't help but make a long-ish speech, something he came so used to while alive.:P

Please tell me what you think.

* * *

Once I said that I will never leave this place until there is no one loyal to me. I'm still here because you haven't left me.  
But why are you so sad? Why do you cry when I am near you? Why do you feel hopeless when nothing has changed?

You don't see me nor hear me, yet I hear and see you perfectly and it pains me when you are saying goodbye. Look, here I am, smiling down at you. You just whispered something and I can see your frown. The expression you came so used to wearing even though you are far too young.  
You have grown up so fast. You saw things even grown men shouldn't and that at the age when you should be playing with others, falling in love, smiling and running around carefree…

I love you. I always did. You have always been like a son to me, no matter how hard I tried to detach. I failed and you suffered for this. Forgive me.

Once you told me I don't know how it feels, that I don't understand. Believe me, I understood then better than anyone what it felt like losing someone close to you. I have lived long enough to experience every kind of emotion, including loss, disappointment, grief… More than once I wished, like you, to get away, to stop everything, to be somewhere else… yet I couldn't. And neither can you. I would not wish you to. Not anymore at least.  
I have met many people in my life, but you were always exceptional. So unlike others you were always loyal to me, to everything that was good. You had so many chances to fade away, to change the path but you did not. There is fire in your heart that could never be put out no matter what you will still go through.

Who knows how you would turn out if the circumstances were different? If you lived a happy life with your parents still alive, would you still be the same person I grew so fond of? No one can say and I think it's best if we leave it at that. Too much dwelling on the past brings nothing good. It only makes you bitter and full of regrets for all that is lost.

No, my dear boy, leave past to where it belongs for it is a heavy weight and you shouldn't carry it with you.  
I can see your face now. Flooded with memories and questions you forgot or didn't dare to ask. Do not think about it. What is done is done. I am part of the past now and you must focus on the future.

Have no regrets, for I have none. Except perhaps that I can not take sweets with me…It is a wonderful human invention, candy. No matter how bitter the world seems, there is always something that brings sweetness in it. Not many people know the simplest pleasures this life has to offer, or can they enjoy them fully. This is the ability only children or children-at-heart (as I like to call people like me…ahem) have…one of many reasons why working with kids was so much more enjoyable… Funny thing is that I keep thinking about everything in present time. Death will obviously take some time to get used to after hundred and fifty years being alive.

Ah, the time has come to take leave. Forgive me Harry for abandoning you at the time like this but I'm sure you have realized by now that no one can help you but yourself at the end. I have taught you almost everything I felt you will need against Voldemort, but from that point on, I became only a distraction to you.

I haven't realized this until this year. I cared for you so much, I would gladly do everything instead of you, so you wouldn't have to suffer. But while wishing this, I refused to admit to myself that this is not my fight. Only you can defeat the Dark side and any attempt on my side to intervene would only postpone the final battle.

This final lesson was a harsh one, not only for you but also for me because I never dreamed of abandoning you. At least not in the time like this yet it was necessary that you would realize there is no one who could do this for you. Your final lesson was on how to be alone, Harry.

Ah,parting is such sweet sorrow they say, yet I feel no sorrow. I feel happiness that I have had such a pleasure to meet a person like you. I do not fear for you because the power to love is exceptionally strong in you even though you do not realize this yet. With your friends you have the power to win. Finding true friendship is the biggest blessing of them all and a far more powerful magic than any the dark side knows of. It is what will decide on the outcome of the war. You can't hear me, but please think of everything I have told you in the past and do not place blame on yourself for anything that has happened recently.

Farewell my dear boy, I have never thanked you for those words you said in my office not so long ago- _Dumbledore's man through and through_. You will never know how much it meant to me. Goodbye Harry and good luck.  
The only regret I feel now is that I don't have lemon drops with me. But I guess that is the cost of being dead.  
Goodbye.

_Then several people screamed. Bright, white flames had erupted around Dumbledore's body and the table upon which it lay: higher and higher they rose, obscuring the body. White smoke spiralled into the air and made strange shapes: Harry thought, for one heart-stopping moment, that he saw a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue, but next second the fire has vanished…  
(Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)._

**THE END**


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